Not Worthy
by Maniacal Dragon
Summary: The sequel to 'The Soul Project'. Johnny is in the grip of the being that had been trapped behind his wall for so long. The Project in Canada continues, and a certain unicorn has his work cut out for him. Final chapter up!
1. Preparing for the Fight

Author's Note: Here it is. the sequel to the story 'The Soul Project'. Some of you wanted me to write one. and well I wanted me to write one too :) So here is the beginning. prelude kind of thing. I'm not sure how often this story will be updated or how often I will have time to work on it, but I will keep working on it, I promise!  
  
  
  
It was a dark night, and although it was still warm outside it was cold in little Todd's room. At least, it felt cold. There was a sliver of moon showing through the window, falling across the foot of Todd's bed. He was curled at the other end of his bed, propped on a single pillow and covered in bunched up blankets. He felt tired, but he couldn't sleep.  
  
It wasn't like the scary neighbor man was up laughing crazily. It wasn't like there were any screams coming from his house. It wasn't like Shmee was bothering him. in fact; the bear had been strangely quiet. Todd huddled down in the blankets, squeezing his eyes shut. At least, he could pretend to sleep. But it was only a façade, nothing more, and Todd could not manage to fool himself.  
  
His large, frightened eyes opened again. He pulled the blankets up closer under his chin and hugged his bear Shmee tightly in both arms. It could be hard to get comfortable sometimes, but that was not what was keeping him from sleeping. Todd's gaze drifted again to the moon outside the window, and sitting up a bit he was able to see the flat roof on the decrepit house where the scary neighbor man lived.  
  
Johnny had left a long time ago. He'd come to say goodbye to his little pal, whom he called 'Squee'. Todd didn't mind the nickname, though if he had he wouldn't have been brave enough to say anything. It was better than being called 'kid' by his father, and 'honey' by his mother. His parents had no names for him. Only Johnny did. Todd shivered suddenly at the thought of Nny. The neighbor man had always frightened Todd, but in a strange way he was almost grateful that someone paid him attention, homicidal and maniacal as that person might be.  
  
Still unable to sleep, Todd crawled out of bed and went over to his desk, clutching Shmee. Stacks of paper littered the desk, and Todd climbed into the chair, picked up a pencil, and started drawing.  
  
It gradually became a reasonably recognizable picture of the scary neighbor man, riding on the back of some kind of animal. But for some reason, Todd's hand kept skewing. There was a picture on the paper that he could only see in his mind, and his hand kept jerking, trying to draw that picture. But it was a scary picture, and Todd didn't want to draw it.  
  
The loud call rang out across the waves and lines of energy that criss- crossed the world. Every world. Trees rustled their leaves together in mild curiosity, dryads playing in the branches stopped for a moment to listen, flowers opened their petals and released their sweet aromas, and tiny, withered gnome-like fae stopped their silent pattering across the forest floor.  
  
And all of the astral beings, the plants here and the fae, the spirits and the deities, all looked up to see the familiar shape which cantered across the soft green grass, not harming or even touching it. A large but graceful figure, horse-like, with a silky cascade of mane and tail, and a long spiraled horn upon his forehead. He was pearly white in color, except for a single streak of red-gold that ran from his eye sockets to his nostrils.  
  
Pine wanted their help; many of them recalled him asking before, but some of these beings had only fleeting memories at best. And, as before, they all ignored him, greeting him as he passed, but not mentioning his request. Pine traveled very far, asking any he came across. He did not communicate in words; such a limited method of expression had little purpose here. Feelings, images, and emotions were the communication used here.  
  
Pine was not very expectant of help, but he still held out hope. Passing through the autumn trees of the nearby Faery Land, Pine was greeted by a soft touch on his shoulder, much like a wind brushing him. But this was a touch he easily recognized, and he turned to greet one being who was the closest thing to 'friend' the unicorn had. Pine felt no need for company, so he rarely spent time with anyone else unless he had a reason to.  
  
This particular faery lived in the autumn woods, was tall and pale and shaped roughly like a humanoid. Gleaming blue eyes, in sharp contrast to the misty complexion, were surrounded by faint patterns of brown and orange. There was something long and flowing trailing from the being's head that resembled hair, and this hair was streaked with gold, orange, and red. This spirit let itself simply be known as Spoke.  
  
Spoke admired the unicorn's age and power, though it was completely content with its own abilities. But the reason Pine asked Spoke for help now was that Spoke was a very flighty being, prone to making many friends and enemies. At the moment, Spoke held in its wispy grasp a bunch of brilliant orange and red leaves, arranged much like a bouquet. Pine asked the fae, and it agreed to help him.  
  
Spoke had had its share of human interactions, as well. It had used to tell Pine stories, which the unicorn had listened to faithfully. Though he found them superfluous at best, it did not bore or annoy him to hear the stories. Spoke had often befriended children before, as human children were more psychically sensitive than adults. Though the fae had, on a couple of occasions, made an adult human friend, lover, or co-magician. Pine found most of Spoke's activities with humans to be a complete waste of time. Rarely did the fae attempt to teach his affiliated humans anything.  
  
But Spoke had more than human friends, and that was what Pine needed now. He could not stop the Project on his own. Not with so many magick- wielders running it and guarding it from interference. And after he had successfully stopped the unnatural twisting of energy that these mages were behind, there was another issue Pine wanted to attempt to resolve. The issue of a tortured human soul held prisoner by a creature powerful enough to toss even other ancient beings around like rag dolls.  
  
A myriad of roiling chaos and pain, an endless pit which he could not climb out of, and indeed kept falling deeper into. He screamed endlessly, but there was no sound, even when it felt like his throat should have been torn asunder, he knew he did not have a throat with which to scream. The thing toyed with him, warping his mind and his perception, or what was left of it. Nightmares too terrible and outlandish for the human mind to even comprehend were forced ruthlessly into his brain. And still, he could not hear himself screaming. He only knew that it would never stop. Not when it had hold of him so firmly.  
  
But why was it after him? Why did it want him, if it was free now? He had visited other realms before, though he could not be sure of the reality of them. It might've been a dream, just like this was, except this was a nightmare world from which there was no waking. If he had had the mental capacity to be afraid, or angry, he would've been. But he couldn't. There was only pain, screaming, and endless, endless frustration.  
  
Sometimes it would let him alone for a short moment. In those few moments when he could think clearly, he had time to recognize it, and hate it, before it sunk its disgusting influence into his mind again. He remembered things only in flashes during these short moments, and often what he remembered was tainted by what the thing wanted him to remember. He remembered Pine, but with a hatred that was not, originally, his own. He remembered Squee, but only as a flicker that had no meaning. And somewhere, during these points of clarity, he knew that this would never end until the thing wanted it to. And the thing did not care. 


	2. Reflection and Some New Allies

This was not one of his most favored spots in the astral realms. Pine went calmly after Spoke, who flitted from rock to rock to lava-filled crag. Fires burned somewhat randomly, without fuel or any other visible source. But on the astral plane, things were not bound by physics as they were on the physical plane.  
  
Spoke had said they were going to meet a dragon. Pine had dealt with dragons before; many of them were old and tended to be very wise. Mostly the dragons he had met were the ones that lived in the woods or the oceans; he'd never met a fire dragon before because frankly he did not spend a lot of time in places like the one he was in now. Pine was still hopeful about this dragon; Spoke had assured him that the being would be delighted to help. Apparently this was an old one none to fond of humans. That was to be expected after how humanity had treated creatures such as dragons and faeries. It was a hurtful thing to call such beings demons, and despite their capriciousness and sometimes self-serving attitude, neither did faeries deserve to be called that. Demon was a term coined by the humans, but there were some creatures and faeries who could and often did fall under the category. The dybbuk and the incubus were two good examples. And then, of course there were entities like the creature that had taken Johnny's soul…  
  
Spoke stopped moving then, and pointed with a long, thin finger towards something that resembled the rest of the rocks and heaves that littered this landscape. It was as still and black as they were, until Spoke began to call out to it.  
  
Patterns of crimson red rippled across the black surface, and a pair of warm, jewel-like yellow eyes opened in one of the black lumps. The crimson red, in glittering scales, continued to spread across the black heaves until a large dragon was revealed; curled with his head on his foreclaws much like a large cat. A long, whip-like tail coiled around in the other direction, and a pair of golden-hued, expansive wings arched up from the dragon's back. Long polished horns curved back from his skull, and a row of finned spikes ran down his neck. He was an imposing and majestic creature, as powerful as Pine but of quite a different nature.  
  
Spoke introduced this being as Aedrywn. And Pine, standing tall with his neck arched and his mane and tail blowing in the hot winds that swept this place, requested the dragon's help. He showed him the horror that was being wrought on souls, both human and non, by the mad 'doctors' of the castle in the cold north of Earth. Aedrywn, who had never liked humans—being old, he remembered well their persecution of his kind—agreed to help. Dragons, like unicorns, were creatures of balance. Almost all life was of balance, though some of it ranged more into the wilder elements of energy and some more into the orderly. Order was the humans, the physical plane, where things were more rigid and unchangeable than they were here. Humans needed to define everything, put a label on it, dissect it until they understood its every aspect. Humanity feared what it could not understand and could not control. But this fear couldn't be used against the 'doctors' Pine was up against. They knew too much about how this realm worked for it to frighten them.  
  
Would three be enough for Pine's 'crusade'? Pine was sure that it was, but Spoke insisted upon going to yet another of his friends. The fae tended to be overly enthusiastic, once its mind was set on something. Though its nature leaned towards devastatingly chaotic, Spoke could be extremely focused.  
  
Dr. Anthony Kasavin wiped the sweat from his brow, and gazed solemnly at the pale figure that lay on the table, staring up at him. The man's eyes were wide, and his body shook all over. There was often a period of shock that a patient went through after its soul was reinstalled into its body. Not only did the soul have to be anchored once again into the physical shell, but the shell itself had to have its functions re-started, had to be coaxed back into operative mode. That wasn't hard to do, unless the body was badly decayed. In such a case it could prove impossible; however, Dr. Kasavin and the others were determined to find a way around that. When they first came into the market, the public would not have many pristine corpses that it would want revived.  
  
This particular human had been left to decay for about a week. That wasn't much, but malfunction of the internal organs could occur due to the decay process, and necessary magickal energy had to be devoted to keeping this in check. Once it was back in operable status, the body could sometimes repair itself. Currently, they were using a combination of antibiotics and healing energy to assist the body in its task. A dead body was full of feeding bacteria, and these had to be gotten rid of until the immune system was back up to par.  
  
"Don't worry," Dr. Kasavin said with a cold smile, his tone only very slightly kind. "You're alive again… aren't you happy? We have made you live once more." He spoke slowly and clearly, as if to an idiot. But this human, in his state of shock, could probably not even understand that. Perhaps someday they could eliminate the recovery period for recalled souls. That increased the chances for more business with the public.  
  
It was not really the money the doctors cared about, although that was a small part of it. It was their need to control things that really motivated the project. The feeling of security and power that came from knowing everything in your world and having a good amount of control over it was unmatchable by anything. There was nothing more elating, more satisfying, than the feeling of power… and it was for this feeling that the project had been started. Money? Only a pleasant side.  
  
But they still had a lot of work to do before the project was over. There was so much they couldn't do yet, and there will still some things they failed to understand. Dr. Kasavin well remembered the cold being that had lurked beyond the ward and surpassed it as easily as if it had been a circle of salt without energy raised to power it. The being had taken the diseased soul of the boy Johnny C. right out of the doctor's firm grasp. And this was something that had to be learned about. It was Dr. Kasavin's firm theory that if you understood something well enough, you possessed the means to control it. And in most cases, that proved true. But there was one thing about which Dr. Kasavin was certain. He wanted that diseased soul back. So much could be learned from it.  
  
It was a few nights later, after the low sun had sunk beyond the horizon when the astral beings made their first move. Most of the doctors were awake; they used drugs and their own skill to reduce the need for sleep almost to non-existence. The ward was still up around the huge stone castle, but with a concentrated, multi-pronged energy attack by the group, it was easy to bypass.  
  
Spoke had recruited two more for the group. One was relatively young and unpowerful, but Pine had agreed with Spoke that all creatures could use some hands-on experience in their learning. This one was of the race known as the Moss People. The other that Spoke had found was closer to a deity. His name was Vertumnus. Spoke said the Romans had worshiped him long ago as the god of gardens. And indeed, that was Vertumnus's main niche, but none of the others believed it would impair the battle. A gardener had a good understanding of balance, and Vertumnus was a very old individual. He was of the caliber to be shown great respect and even worship by humans; he possessed a power equal to that of Pine and Aedrywn, perhaps even surpassing in some cases.  
  
Dr. Kasavin was up that night, working on removing a soul from a young child. The soldier who had brought him the child had had a very worn and pained expression, but Dr. Kasavin did not question where the child had been found and the soldier did not volunteer any information. It was not important, as long as no one came looking for the young one.  
  
When he'd finished, and had the soul struggling in his grasp, he sensed something about this particular one. It was an old soul; extremely old. Old souls handled differently than young ones; and were perhaps a bit more difficult to manage. But they would have to be conquered just as well; although there were more young souls than old on Earth, there were a few old ones here that a family might want recalled.  
  
A voice suddenly chattered in his head, but he kept his concentration on the soul.  
  
"Ugly human. Screaming ripping souls from their natural path. How dare ye?"  
  
Dr. Kasavin blinked at the voice. He recognized an astral being; a fae or an elemental. How had it gotten inside the ward? He knew there was not a being like this within the castle; astral life here was now carefully monitored, since the incident with the unicorn. The doctor did not reply to the confrontation; he had no need to defend his motivations. He knew that the project out-stepped the bounds of the natural order of things, but that was the challenge of it.  
  
"We come to stop ye. Give up the soul. I knew her before; she was an ancient friend of mine long time ago. Yes, I knew her before." Dr. Kasavin could feel the being make a grab for the soul he held in his clutches, but he easily kept a hold of it from the long ghostly fingers of the fae. Still, there was no need to bother with words. This was an unauthorized presence in the castle, but it was nothing he couldn't control; not like that unicorn…  
  
Young Todd flinched away from his father's raised arm. Mr. Casil hadn't hit him, but he looked so frightening and imposing, standing there rigidly, a dark storm across his brow.  
  
"You ruined my life." Todd had heard the tirade many times before, but his innocent mind still failed to comprehend the implications. Todd had no friends; he had no one but Shmee, and he innocently and childishly believed that his parents loved him and did not mean the cruel things they said.  
  
Todd turned his head, his gaze falling on the drawing that was taped to the smiling wallpaper. It was a crude child's drawing; a picture of Todd's mother and father, with Todd in the middle. It was a pretty standard conception, except that Todd had scribbled a shadowy border around it, and another shape lurked in those shadows, a thin, scraggly-haired shape.  
  
Mr. Casil's glassy-eyed gaze was also fixed on the picture, but he did not see the implication of it or he did not care. And Todd's young hopes were again dashed, upon hearing his father's words.  
  
"I'm sorry nobody loves you… what was your name… kid, I'm sorry, I really am. But there's a reason for it. You know how you ruined my life. You know how your mother is these days. I'm really falling apart, and it's your fault. Just think about how awful my life is, and you'll understand why."  
  
When his father talked like that, Todd's eyes started to sting and his nose felt thick. But, as always, he convinced himself that his father did not mean it. He couldn't mean it… they were his parents; they had to love him. Todd could not understand otherwise, and it was doubtful he would until he was older. It was a rare thing; that such a neglected child could remain so innocent, especially living next to a person like Johnny. But Todd remained so.  
  
After his father left Todd continued sitting on his bed, staring at the floor. His sneakers dangled above the floor, and he kicked them back and forth slowly. Hunched forward, holding Shmee tightly, Todd looked the picture of a dejected child. Alone, uncared for, Todd merely accepted it as his fate, although he wished more than anything for his parents to hug him. Just once… one hug to show him that they cared. That was all he wanted, but even in his wishing he did not believe it would ever happen.  
  
Pine knew he should be helping Spoke, at the castle, but something was drawing him here. The fae was merely distracting them, right now; the others were waiting. The unicorn did not think he would be long, and he felt this could not wait.  
  
Well, perhaps it could. But walking calmly along the human street, though he remained invisible to all but the psychic senses, Pine felt a deep-seated dislike for this place in which humans made their homes. They were content with so little, and yet never were content. But the place where Pine was heading was the worst of them all.  
  
A small house, run-down, with boarded up windows and a house number beside the door reading simply '777'. It was dark, and cold with the absence of life. But there was ugliness inside. Filth. Everywhere. The house was small only on the top floor; intricate labyrinths extended far below the ground, and it was here that the negativity sat like an oppressive cloud that clung to everything it touched. Standing on the worn floorboards as he gazed down the stairs, Pine could smell the blood, sense the fear, the rage, the hatred. Though the unicorn was forced to turn away from it, sickened, he did not blame Johnny. The way the poor human drew negative energy in; it was no surprise that he'd become an extension of it.  
  
And what would happen to this place now? Now that Johnny was in the direct clutches of the creature that had been feeding on his mind for so long, there was no need for any residence on the physical plane. But no one deserved this to happen to them. Not even someone who had murdered hundreds, bloodily ended lives that hadn't yet run their course. That, too, was wrong; lives ended so abruptly often could not carry out their purpose. The rage and pain and unending agony that Pine felt seeping through this house told him that perhaps, they had begun to learn their lessons. The hard way. Johnny was a spiritual anomaly, perhaps because of the creature, perhaps by some accident.  
  
Pine did not like suffering. He did not like the ending of life. But he accepted that without suffering nothing would be accomplished, and he understood that death was never the end. No, the end was being caught in the claws of someone like those doctors, or like that demon of Nny's. Because true end is unnatural; there is always a balance, always a continuation. Everything in existence is recycled, nothing is ever created, nothing ever destroyed.  
  
The unicorn stood there, head down, letting the ugly energy flow around him. It would almost appear like he was in despair, but that was not the case. He only contemplated, and experienced unpleasantness as a path to further understanding.  
  
Pine lifted his head upon hearing a call. It was Spoke, looking for him. They were ready to break down the ward. Leaping past Johnny's house, Pine traveled north to where the castle stood. He located it by the ward that still pulsed around the cold stone edifice, and he felt the energy pattern forms of Aedrywn, Vertumnus, and the lone Moss Person waiting just outside of it. He joined them. It was time to tear the Project apart once and for all. 


	3. Release, and a Victory

It was like being caught in a suffocating net of void. It was a feeling where everything around you was open and empty, and yet you remained frozen. It was hard to tell where the thing was anymore; it was nothing more than a subtle difference from his own thoughts now. It was a horribly invasive feeling, having that thing inside of his head. It wrapped around his mind, dug in its probing tendrils of negativity, and held him in such a grip that he feared if he moved he'd be dashed to pieces. Even so, he couldn't move, even when the pain drove him far past the point when he needed to be able to do something to take his attention from it. It was not physical, nerve-induced pain; but it was much worse.  
  
The thing wasn't the only thing with a grip on him. Nny felt, once in a while, a more familiar, weaker energy tugging at him, but it was always snapped loose by the thing. It was a deep well of ugliness, though not nearly as deep as the one that had him in its clutches.  
  
He broke into one of his brief moments of clarity, as he managed to struggle above the lessening pool of darkness. It streamed around him, blinding and choking him, and his respite was brief until he was dragged under once more. It had been this way for too long now, and when Nny thought he'd finally come to be able to endure it, it seemed to open up into new realms of torture.  
  
He thought this, as much as he could think, when he saw a flash of shining fire cut through the negativity. It recoiled from the flash, drawing away as if in disgust or pain, and Nny almost instinctively tried to reach for it. The thing hauled back on his mind, and he tried to scream… though the scream was not there, and did not release even a bit of his fear and pain. Colors bombarded him on all sides, colors, emotions, and feelings. This was something new, and it would've frightened him; would've had him thinking it was something still worse, but the ingrained sense and knowledge of energy that is in all life told him differently. It wasn't worse… it was better.  
  
He felt a sudden swelling of rage and hatred, as the thing flexed itself in his mind. But the colors were around him now, under him, pulling him free of the suffocating blackness of the thing, and he could tell the difference between his own feelings and those the demon put in his mind.  
  
The soft, shining white covered his psychic vision, and he felt the colors wrapping around him tightly. He tried to scream again as he felt the thing's icy grip in his mind loosen and slither out, raking painfully as it was forcibly extracted. But in only a moment, it was out, and only that light warmth was left. He was too numb to feel anyway, to think anything, but distantly, in the back of what was left of his consciousness, he knew someone had come to save him.  
  
  
  
It was, in fact, someone, though that someone had had quite a bit of help. Johnny awakened to find himself lying in long grass, chilled from the night wind as he stared up at the dark blue sky. A dusting of stars was spattered across it, some of them seeming almost to wink at him as he gazed fixedly. He wasn't used to moving, not anymore, but slowly, he turned his head, moved his limbs, ever so slightly, and then he closed his eyes in the rush of relief that he was free again.  
  
He struggled to sit up, wincing at the sudden stiffness of his obviously long-prone body. Body? Yes, he was once again wearing a body… from what he could see, the same wire-thin frame, ragged clothes, and sickly human skin. He looked around, but couldn't see anything besides long grass, and the sky. Perhaps that smudge was a line of trees, but there was no way of telling. He thought he felt a breath of warm air against his right ear, but everywhere else there seemed to be only a cold breeze blowing. That in itself was strange… but Nny couldn't even be sure where he was. Just because it resembled an Earth scene didn't mean anything.  
  
He turned his head and saw a soft glow right beside him. He had seen at it for barely half a second before when suddenly jerked to one side and pulled closer. His next action was only reflex; he recoiled, swinging around in a sitting position as he quickly slid away from it. Thank god he could move the way he wanted to now… narrowing his eyes he looked closer at the bobbing globe of light.  
  
As he looked at it, what had appeared to be no more than a glow of light began to take shape… it looked vaguely humanoid and had a pair of colorful butterfly wings spreading from its shoulders, though it wasn't using them to stay aloft. Something else must've been doing that, reinforcing Nny's opinion that he wasn't actually on Earth at all. All in all, he recognized the being as something that resembled a Victorian faery, though not exactly.  
  
The tiny being flitted back and forth; not coming any closer. He heard something that sounded almost like bells tinkling, and realized it was the faery's voice… not like he could understand what it was saying. Nny struggled to his feet, an annoyed expression crossing his face. He was very glad to be free of the clutches of that demon, but this was nearly as strange even if it didn't seem as dangerous. Faeries weren't supposed to be real. Despite his growing detachment to what he considered the real world, at least there he knew what things were… how they worked. This place, and places like it, as well as beings like the thing bobbing in front of him, were not things that he understood as well as he would've liked. But then, what did humanity ever understand? There was no way a mere human could hope to hold the kind of understanding that would release them from the fear of the unknown.  
  
The faery was flitting more eagerly now, the tinkling bells of its voice becoming a little clearer. Johnny realized that the being was saying his name.  
  
"What?" he said tiredly, a touch of annoyance in his voice.  
  
The being seemed delighted that he had spoken to it, and it floated over to him, reaching out tiny hands to stroke a lock of his straggly black hair. Johnny jerked his head away from its questing fingers in irritation, his wide, mistrustful eyes never leaving the faery as he avoided it; backing away when it advanced, darting to the side when it reached out for him again. If it was possible, he thought it looked a little hurt… or perhaps that was just the vibe it was giving off.  
  
As soon as the being stopped trying to touch his hair, or whatever else it was doing, Nny's annoyance with it gradually dissipated, and he took his attention from it to look at his surroundings once more. He ran the details of it over and over in his mind, trying to figure out what was different from the 'real' world about it. The smudging was the most obvious, but there were subtler things; the stars, for example, seemed to change position a lot, though not quickly or drastically. If he concentrated enough on the dark smudge long enough, it began to look like trees, but then again he also seemed to be able to fool himself into seeing it as rocks or flowers, or thorn bushes, or whatever else he could think of.  
  
While he looked, the little fae creature had not moved. It watched him with its wide eyes, its shining glow distracting Johnny's eye from what he was trying to look at. Finally he allowed his gaze to fall on the being.  
  
"Where is this?" he asked it. "This isn't Earth."  
  
"Earth?" it tinkled merrily. "Not physical Earth."  
  
"No," Johnny agreed, battling with his frustration at the tiny creature. He didn't like it. But he needed to find out where he was, how to get home… and perhaps he was even looking for some assurance that the thing would not come back for him. And unfortunately, this fae was the only living thing in evidence. Johnny felt himself wishing suddenly for Pine… though the thought of Pine brought mixed feelings, at best. Nny wasn't quite sure he was ready to forgive the unicorn for abandoning him… his hesitation even on that matter was because he did not know whose thoughts were dictating his feelings on Pine. Nny felt ready to blame the unicorn, but was that readiness him talking, his jealousy, or the thing? And was the thing really gone…?  
  
When Johnny looked back over at the faery, it had disappeared, leaving only a slight trace of phosphorus light in its wake.  
  
  
  
It was like walking through a battlefield. In fact, that's what it was. Though there were no bodies here, and no blood, only the scattered remnants of ugly, violent energy that clung and sucked onto everything it touched. It was easy enough to simply wash away, but in Pine's current state of mind it did not seem important.  
  
Yes, the attack had been successful; but the fight had been difficult. In the end, humans were humans, and their spirits were still tied to a limited physical body. They did not have the freedom of movement or the versatility of a non-corporeal being. They had recognized Pine's entry immediately and tried to force him out. He had been the main distraction, as it turned out, allowing Aedrywn and Vertumnus to slip in through the cracks and do the real damage. Releasing the natural flow of energy, even where the 'doctors' had worked so hard to disrupt and contain it, was an easy and inherent thing to do. That was the force that had been the main prevailing factor in the fight.  
  
And Pine knew it had been worth it. Not everything was gone… they hadn't killed anyone, and had physically destroyed very few things. But the energy barriers, familiars, and stores, had been shattered and sent on their way, including all the souls that were currently being 'worked on'. If nothing else, the doctors would have to partially start over; and in the best case scenario, they wouldn't attempt it. Although Aedrywn had offered to destroy the meddlesome humans; his blood-red shadow looming over a cowering pair of them as brilliant yellow eyes flashed in anticipation. Pine knew that Aedrywn held a grudge against humankind. But nothing could ever convince the unicorn to endorse death where it was not strictly needed, and so he had declined the dragon's offer. And now, picking his way through the refuse of energy that littered the castle, Pine sent his awareness out, searching over the rolling hills of ley energy across several planes. He zeroed in on the specific energy patterns he was looking for, and galloped towards them, leaving the castle to his group.  
  
Spoke watched the unicorn go, its wide eyes curious. Then the thin autumn fae set himself to the task of sweeping the area free of negative energy. 


	4. You Thought You Could Fight

Johnny had managed to find a tree. Not a smudgy one, either, that changed every time he looked at it. No, this was a real, solid, tree, though it somehow seemed brighter, and more alive, then trees he'd seen back home. No, trees had never managed to get his attention before, but this one was a stable, familiar spot in an uncertain world, and so Nny stayed with it. It seemed to him like a long time had passed, but there was no way to be sure.  
  
The cold stars glittered at him, and the grass caressed the silver toes of his boots in the slight breeze. It was silent, and Nny felt blissfully alone. If it hadn't been for the uncertainty of both present and future, he might almost have been content. He looked up into the tree, and reached a hand out to grip one of the branches.  
  
He pulled himself into the network of tree branches with cat-like grace, making no sound except for when he accidentally scraped the edge of one of his boots against the bark. He was thin enough to be quite comfortable on a medium-sized branch halfway up the tree, and there he waited, resting his head against the rough trunk. The tree talked to him, in its strange and subtle way, until he closed his eyes and went to sleep.  
  
  
  
He awakened to a veritable horde of little flitty things. He let out a startled yell and tumbled back out of the tree. The thick grass broke his fall, to some extent, but his apprehension about the sudden appearance of dozens of bobbing globes of light overrode the dull pain. He tried to back away and stand up all at once, one hand flying down to his boots for a knife. He didn't find one; which led him to the conclusion that he was not in very much control here.  
  
The little faery beings coursed around him, their soft light illuminating Nny's sickly, yellowish complexion, giving him an almost pallid glow. He'd managed to get to his feet, but still the little creatures wouldn't let him escape. He felt a tremor in one eye, which spread to his hands, and gradually throughout his whole body. They wouldn't stop crowding him. They wouldn't leave him alone. Damn it, WHY didn't he have a knife?  
  
He tried the trick he'd learned in response to the oppressive familiars back at the castle. The castle… he remembered the place itself, it seemed, only vaguely, but he remembered clearly how ugly and terrible it had felt. This was better than that, and in reaching into the power well he'd only recently discovered in his own mind, he sensed that these creatures were not hostile and they meant him no harm. But that didn't change the fact that they were crowding around him and he did not like it. Johnny mentally thrust them away, pushed violently at them with the energy his own mind was wrapped around, and he was relieved to see them scatter backwards and dart about in anxiety and confusion.  
  
But then they swarmed in again. Nny backed away quickly, once again fearful that he wasn't in as much control as he thought he was. And that was the most painful, frightening, unknown place to be in—not in control of yourself. He'd been there, too many times. And he didn't understand, now, why he couldn't chase these beings off like he had the familiars at the castle.  
  
The bobbing globes seemed to converge, glowing into a single ball of light. No matter how quickly Johnny evaded its forward motion in his direction, it kept coming, and might even have been gaining. He wished for a knife even as he realized that it wasn't a knife that he needed to fend these strange beings off.  
  
A knife, Johnny, a voice whispered in his mind. Use your mind as a knife. You can do this. Don't be afraid.  
  
The voice conjured up an image of his old pal Nailbunny in Nny's mind. Though not an entity in himself, really, Nailbunny was the only voice of reason Johnny had ever heard and ever known, before Pine.  
  
And it was that voice of reason that he listened to now. He focused on the glowing ball before him; his mind exploring the little tendrils of energy that crossed everywhere across this world, before grabbing bits of it and swirling into an image in Nny's mind of… a knife. It was not a physically tangible knife, and Johnny suspected you wouldn't even be able to see it back on Earth, but here it flashed and glinted with deadly precision, and he found he could wield it with his mind almost as deftly as he wielded his knives of steel. With a little practice… it would be an extremely useful weapon.  
  
And it served his purpose now. Moving in a motion reminiscent of those he used in cutting strikes, Nny used that knife to cut through the glowing ball, scatter its individuals, fling them away, and keep them at bay as they circled him. A wide grin was spreading across his face, as crazed as the glint that came into his eyes. He moved along with the mental knife; it helped him to focus it better to handle the knife and attacks in a similar manner as he was used to.  
  
He kept after the lights, his attacks and evasions growing faster and more furious. He was falling into the old swing of what he'd been doing for as long as he could remember, and as he tried it out, he found the mental knife to be no more difficult to handle. He grew intent on his goal, chasing the lights away from him, parrying all their attempts to swarm together or closer to him. He played a game, almost; not hurting them, just keeping them away from him.  
  
  
  
It was in the middle of this that Pine arrived. The unicorn appeared as only another glow, through which he watched his charge leaping, darting, and slashing with a shimmering weapon obviously conceived with pure energy. Pine felt a moment of pride. What Johnny was doing was quite a big accomplishment. Of course it did help that this was only a variant on what the human usually did.  
  
Johnny slowed his attacks when he noticed the unicorn. The maniacal grin faded from his face, and as his strikes against them slowed and the sword dissipated with Nny's distraction, the little globes of light tried to swarm him again, not aware that the game had ended. Pine tossed his head, dismissing them with a swipe of his horn and a tendril of his own power. They faded out and disappeared.  
  
"You left," Johnny said. Only silence echoed him. Pine waited; he knew it was human nature to both give out and accrue blame for events that no one really had any control over. Johnny didn't seem to have anything more to say; his eyes still held that crazy luster, though his scrawny form seemed to melt back into the shadows somewhat. Pine saw a confused, suspicious human, afraid of the unknown and the thought of return to the agony that he'd only just escaped. Pine didn't blame him. He couldn't blame Johnny for anything. When you considered every facet of a human's nature, everything they said or did was right and just. Things seemed wrong only because of a lack of understanding. And that was why Pine still stayed around humans. He wanted them to understand.  
  
Johnny, as a student, was an unusual case. Although he was drawn to the human at first because of the situation he had been in, Pine found himself curious—curious how such a diseased soul would understand the world. Pine had dealt with human minds that were less than there before. But never had he found a soul that was the cause of insanity. A soul, an outside force of negativity, and some purpose behind it all… but what?  
  
  
  
Johnny knew how Pine's logic was working. He said nothing, and waited for Johnny to realize his own mistake… whatever it was. But Nny was frustrated… not to mention annoyed, distrustful, and betrayed. Pine had left him alone in the grip of that creature, he had seen the unicorn turn away and leave. Why? Of all creatures Johnny would've expected better of a unicorn, but his mind was so used to getting the worst from all living things, it had easily accepted the idea that the unicorn had abandoned him. Not even counting whatever influence the demon had impressed upon him. Johnny stood there, struggling with it, for a long time. In this realm, he had a feeling that time was measured very differently from what it was in his own realm. And he realized that, despite the ugliness of his life back there, he would prefer it to this world, where huge, powerful creatures could torture you for eternity, and where strange things crept in every shadow. Where little bobbing lights wouldn't leave you alone. Johnny looked into the warm brown eyes of the unicorn, who still simply stood there, his tail swishing gently, his ears perked at the human. This wasn't an evil being. Whatever he had done, he had done it for a reason, and Johnny reluctantly decided that he was just too young and human to understand. Of course, there definitely was too much that Johnny understood… but even he knew that while he understood the negative side of most things extremely well, good was a mystery to him.  
  
"Will you take me home?" Johnny spoke the question quickly.  
  
"To the physical world?" Pine answered.  
  
"Yes… the physical world," Nny cocked an eyebrow at the unicorn. What other home did he have?  
  
"Johnny, you no longer have a physical body."  
  
He hadn't thought about that. He remembered only the agony when his soul had been torn from his body, and he flinched at the memory. He had known he wasn't in his body anymore, but he hadn't thought about that. And so, here he was, in a non-corporeal world, where he was doomed to an existence no more solid than it was.  
  
"You don't have one either," he finally said, his mind trying to find a way around the situation. "But you go there."  
  
"I don't live there."  
  
So why couldn't Johnny just 'visit' then? Because I don't know enough, he thought to himself with a cynical smirk. He heard that voice in his mind again. Of course the unicorn could, he was much older and more powerful than Nny was.  
  
"I'm stuck here then."  
  
"I'm sure it's possible to fabricate a previous existence on the physical plane. Maybe even a new one," Pine said. At least he was being helpful… somehow Johnny knew that such a task as the unicorn spoke of was no little feat and probably not accomplishable even by a being so powerful as Pine.  
  
"Without the wall demon?" He couldn't help but ask that question… the thought of living in control, his memories undamaged and his mind intact, was a nice one.  
  
"I couldn't promise you that. Whatever that thing is, it's attuned to you. Your soul, your energy pattern. Maybe it will find you again, maybe it will choose not to." Pine's gaze was unwavering, but compassionate despite the cruelly truthful words. "You made it powerful, Johnny. You gave into it. The life and power of the hundreds you murdered is in that thing."  
  
"If it's so powerful now, why would it come back?"  
  
"I don't know. Maybe for the same reason it was holding onto you and torturing you. Why does it want you, Nny? What else does it need from you? I can't answer that for you, but maybe if you come to understand things well enough, you can answer it yourself."  
  
"It can still be defeated though, can't it? I could hold it away…"  
  
"Not by yourself. You will need to find others to help you if you want to keep it at bay. Perhaps, when it first found you, you could've driven it away by yourself, but you didn't know how then. And it took you over, made you feed it, so it could become powerful."  
  
Johnny crossed his arms, thinking, as he gazed pensively at the grass that wavered in the breeze. He was beginning to feel helplessly out of control again. He'd always thought, when his thoughts were his own, that the thing behind his wall had once been weak enough for him to overcome. He had thought he could fight. But he was wrong… maybe if he had known then what he knew now, he could've fought. But it was too late; there was no way he could do it by himself now… the unicorn was right. He'd have to find someone to help him. But who? Not humans, certainly, but that was out of the question anyway because he no longer had an existence on that plane. More astral beings, then.  
  
"Where can I find someone to help?" he asked Pine finally.  
  
"I know a group that is familiar with this type of creature."  
  
"Wait… this 'type'? You mean there's more than one of those things?"  
  
"Their nature is a characteristic of their group, yes. They feed off of energy acquired through helpless souls. They take different forms, mostly the form or appearance they take has some significance with the soul that they've 'chosen' to serve them."  
  
"So… these things are everywhere?"  
  
"There are not many of them on Earth. But there is something special about you, Johnny; all that I have seen on Earth, seems to be connected to you in some way."  
  
"Me?"  
  
"Yes. I don't know more about it than that."  
  
Johnny grimaced, then shrugged. If he could find someone to help him… maybe none of this would matter anymore. Maybe someday, it would all be moot…  
  
"Can we go see that group you were talking about?"  
  
"Of course." 


	5. Help Shouldn't Have a Price

Author's Note: Okay, next sad sad little chapter this note is in here because I have pictures (illustrations, if you will) I've done for The Soul Project to link to! These are all by me, in case it isn't obvious! ^.^ Hopefully my website won't be down.. again.. ¬.¬  
  
http://kaijugirl.topcities.com/nny/nnypinesoul1.jpg  
  
Pine and Johnny, respectively! Colored pencil on bluuuuuue paper!  
  
http://kaijugirl.topcities.com/nny/soulproject1.jpg  
  
Johnny! Computer colored and complete with a screenshot from a computer game :p  
  
http://kaijugirl.topcities.com/nny/soulproject2c.jpg  
  
Johnny and Pine in awesome 3D!! With a screenshot again. The 3d Johnny is by Psychosis (http://www.psychosis-studios.com/) And it is very very cool! Pine was done in Poser 4.  
  
  
  
Pointless Quote of the Day/Chapter/Thing:  
  
Opening my third day in this new land I was further dazzled and amazed. – Thomas the Rhymer, 13th century poet and visitor to the Faery Lands  
  
And now for Chapter 5 enjoy :)  
  
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Now that he was not wracked with pain or clouded with confusion and dizziness, Johnny found that riding on a unicorn was actually pretty fun. It wasn't like riding a horse—though Johnny couldn't recall any memories of horse-riding, he felt there was always the possibility of it having happened earlier in his life. Rather, riding a unicorn was more like what Nny had always thought flying would feel like. It was absolutely free. There was no jarring and no pounding. In fact, Nny wasn't sure if he was on Pine's back, running beside him, or was in fact a part of him at the moment.  
  
And the places they passed were just as breathtaking. All of them held the same vibrant, ethereal quality that he'd seen in the starlit grass field he'd woken up in. Some of them resembled earth scenes, some of them didn't, but they all seemed to hold a strange lure. Glamour, that's what Pine said it was at least in these realms. These were the realms of Faeryland; one of the worlds that was closest to Earth. In fact, Earth and Faeryland used to be so closely intertwined that only the base natures of their inhabitants separated them.  
  
The place they were coming to was spectacular, as well. The intangible surface that Pine was galloping across seemed to turn into shimmering blue water. Craggy rocks and ornate caves rose from the marine depths, and Pine turned upwards. It was something like an island; grass and trees with a life and color that Nny had never seen back on what Pine termed the physical plane. One end of the island was made up of grasslands and forests, while the other end rose up in steep crags to high plateaus. There were villages, and on the highest plateau, a stone castle. It did not resemble at all the one in which the robed doctors' had been conducting their experiments.  
  
Where is this? Johnny asked the unicorn, as Pine came to a halt on the soft grass near the shore of the shimmering water.  
  
Faeryland. A fae high court rules here, that has been looking into things like your demon. This particular spot is close to Earth. Humans have visited it.  
  
When did they ever have minds open enough to do that?  
  
Long ago. Very long ago Pine began to walk across the grass as the land rose up, growing steeper. Nny guessed they were headed for the castle. In a way, this place reminded him very much of what he thought he remembered his conception of medieval England to be like. Perhaps Pine was right and Faeryland and Earth had been almost one world once although, a society founded on a completely different basic nature and mentality had to be more tolerable than the human one Johnny was unfortunately already familiar with.  
  
Nny didn't say anything as the unicorn steadfastly navigated the narrow trail that wound up the rocky cliffs leading to the plateau on which the castle sat. He was perplexed, though. Pine had galloped across the waves, through the air why now didn't he just soar on up to the castle?  
  
It is courtesy to take the way given.  
  
Will you stop reading my mind?  
  
I'm only answering your questions. It is something I'm dedicated to do.  
  
  
  
  
  
Pine had reached the top now, and tossing his mane, he let out a long, melodic call it was definitely no horse neigh, reminding Johnny once again that although the unicorn was similar in appearance to a horse, they were definitely not at all the same thing.  
  
It was melody that Pine called with, and melody was what answered. It was a sort of trumpet-like blast, seeming to announce supremacy but at the same time bring joy to everyone below. The castle itself was a very interesting piece of architecture. Johnny had a good understanding of such things; he did possess an analytical mind that he rarely used. What held things together, how things worked together, fit together and this castle fit, though Nny was sure that things here didn't work the same way as on Earth. Perhaps it was an emulation of some human architectural style. Nevertheless, it was still very impressive. Built of a whitish-grey stone, there was a courtyard beyond the gatehouse before which Pine now stood. It was not a traditional castle; it was built up past the courtyard like an elaborate house that just kept getting new rooms added wherever they would fit. A tall, decrepit tower, half-crumbled, was situated right behind the castle, its peak rising high above the tallest point of the castle.  
  
Somebody was coming. Pine's ears flicked forward, then back towards Nny still perched on his back. Johnny was leaning to one side, eyes flicking back and forth nervously for a glimpse of the group that was coming to meet them. As a rule, Nny did not trust groups, and he especially didn't trust organized groups like this. A castle usually contained a ruling body, with a hierarchy, and no place for outsiders. He hunched down on Pine's back, twining his thin fingers in the unicorn's silky mane.  
  
The individuals making up the group that now approached into view looked roughly human, except that they were thinner and fairer. Their skin was very pale, and their hair was wispy and light blond. They were no stockier than Johnny himself was, and he was extremely thin, for a human. Their features were sharp, giving them an almost emaciated look. They were dressed in old-fashioned clothes, with chain mail shirts loosely draped over their torsos. Each of them carried a sharp spear.  
  
As they approached the unicorn and the human they slowed, and one of them stepped forward, leaning closer to Pine. The unicorn, in turn, lowered his head, angling his horn at the being, and met his gaze.  
  
said the being. There was no emotion behind his voice, as his gaze traveled past Pine and across the human perched on the unicorn's back. He turned sharply, gesturing for them to follow, and the group unlocked the gatehouse and marched into the courtyard. Pine started to move, until Johnny gripped his mane again nervously, hunching down.  
  
We don't have to follow them, Pine said. But they are the ones that may know the key to getting rid of your demon. It's up to you. He stopped, perking his ears back in Nny's direction, to wait for his answer.  
  
Johnny didn't like the beings, but he knew that was just because he didn't know anything about what they were like. Curiosity had never really been a driving factor in his life. He held expectations, and rarely gave anything the chance to not meet them. Fear of the unknown was a large chunk of the make-up of human nature, and Nny was no different in that case. It had been the unknown that had made him what he was. But his fear was of a known thing, and to escape the horrors that he knew, he would face what he didn't know.  
  
Go ahead he said after a moment. Pine started through the gatehouse. The group waited in the courtyard on the other side to flank the unicorn as they led him into one of the doors of the castle. There was no large, main door, only smaller doors in every building on the ground. Their guard did not march; they simply ambled as if they didn't have a concern in the world. Was it because they trusted Pine? Or was that just how they worked?  
  
You're well-known around here, Johnny muttered to the unicorn.  
  
I've been around long enough to be known in many places, Pine responded. Though there are many that won't associate with me.  
  
Why is that?  
  
I hold out too much for humankind.  
  
You defend them?  
  
Not generally. I hope for them, I try to teach them despite their unwillingness to learn.  
  
Johnny grimaced slightly. Pine didn't answer him. That meant he'd asked a stupid question. No, he corrected himself, not a stupid question, just a question I can answer myself with some thinking in the right direction. He didn't feel like thinking about it.  
  
Nny tapped the fingers of one hand idly against his leg, gazing at the scene around him. It was not terribly ornate, being simple without being cold or desolate. Rugs lined the stone hallways, along with tapestries. The tapestries depicted maps, your classic heroes; things like that Nny even saw a unicorn in one. The hallways were very long they seemed to go on forever.  
  
Where are we going? Johnny asked Pine.  
  
To the council room, I would imagine. They know I only come here on serious matters.  
  
The council room turned out to be more or less a throne room. Though there were several of the creatures dotted around, the centerpiece was obviously the throne upon which sat one of their number, dressed richly in colorful robes and ornate jewelry. This one looked more feminine than masculine. Their queen, or some such? The guard dropped back as Pine entered the room, and the unicorn stood on the carpet before the throne.  
  
Welcome, Pine. The queen's melodious voice rippled through the hushed silence. What brings you to our fair court?  
  
A human plagued with one of the number of the Reavers.  
  
Whispers spread behind throughout the room behind the pair. Nny's gaze flicked around the room; though he didn't turn his head.  
  
A Reaver, hmm? The queen narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. What relevance has this to us?  
  
We came seeking your assistance.  
  
I see. And what do you offer in return?  
  
Pine didn't even blink. What is it that you want?  
  
She didn't answer right away. Nny gritted his teeth. He hadn't thought there would be a price exacted for help. He'd thought these beings were better than humans, but apparently they weren't. He was close to walking right out, with or without Pine. He'd rather deal with an ugly demon thing than with greedy humanoids.  
  
was the queen's answer. In dealing with a Reaver, I only want some assurance that it will further our knowledge of their group. You know they do wrong as well as I do.  
  
Of course, Pine replied. Nny relaxed, slightly if all they wanted was knowledge, and to a beneficial end no less, that was all right. Still why all the banter like there was a price required?  
  
Another formality. He heard Pine's voice in his mind.  
  
Stop doing that, Johnny hissed in return. The unicorn didn't reply.  
  
the queen was continuing. This particular Reaver has amassed a lot of power, or you would be able to handle it yourself. It was this human, then, that fed it for so long? He is young; it couldn't have happened this quickly unless something drastic happened. Do you know?  
  
It warped him into a suction-force for negativity. He became an augmentation of that energy. He murdered, painted a wall an in-between. It was through this that it the life energy of the slain was transferred to the Reaver.  
  
Johnny flinched. How had Pine known about the wall? How he'd willingly fed the thing? Of course, there was the cajolement of Mr. Eff Johnny had thought Eff to be one of his own voices for a long time Nny's gaze flitted around the room again. He could feel eyes on him from behind. Here he was, all the rot he'd done being brought out into the open. His breath quickened. He imagined he could feel their judgment of him for what he'd done. He imagined them withdrawing, hating him for no reason beyond the fact that he'd fed a whatever that was. His hands tightened to a deathlike grip on Pine's mane.  
  
  
  
Pine felt Johnny's agitation in an instant. The queen was gazing solemnly at the human as well, her expression unreadable. Emotions were more tangible here, and could be felt more widely when projected as strongly as Nny was emitting them. Strongly fortified expectations, a diseased soul, a frustration with everything, all of this was drawing conclusions in the human's mind that weren't really there.  
  
You fed a Reaver, the queen said after a few moments, dryly. Why should we condemn you for that? You are only human. Reavers hold a very strong influence.  
  
Johnny didn't relax. Now they looked down on him for being human. He felt that familiar twitch in his eye.  
  
So now I'm weak and stupid, because I'm human? Nny retorted to the queen. Is that it? I must be like all the other idiotic flesh-sacks that crawl the planet just because I'm human? I may be insane, and I may be sick with whatever this bastard wall thing is, but disregarding that, I have horrible clarity. Maybe I'm clouded in that, too. I only see the rot and stink of the world. I've lost the ability to see anything good! I hate living like this! I hate living in a world where there's nothing to see but what's bad! I hate living around blind imbeciles that can't see beyond their own petty greed!! That's why I killed them! It wasn't because of the damn wall!!  
  
Pine flicked his ears back at the hysterical human, then forward at the queen. He wasn't worried, Johnny thought bitterly. You've been around humans enough, haven't you, you alicorned beast  
  
The queen was watching Nny with a small smile on her face. That's why we're here to help you, she said. Her tone was amused; she wasn't even listening. Johnny felt fury boil up inside of him again, but he quelled it, satisfying himself instead with digging his boot heels into the unicorn's flank. He knew Pine didn't mind. Besides, he wasn't sure if turning homicidal on these creatures would work very well. He still wasn't good enough with that mental knife'.  
  
The queen was silent a moment, studying Johnny's face carefully. He gazed right back, crazed eyes intense on the other being. There was nothing better than Earth. They were all like this. Condescending, selfish, uncaring had he escaped one hell, only to be met constantly with others?  
  
Wait outside, you two, the queen said then. I'll send my son to attend you while we discuss the best way to plan our attack against your Reaver. Johnny bit his tongue against yet another venomous rant, as Pine turned and glided swiftly out the door.  
  
  
  
So, they're actually going to help Nny's voice was bitter. I wouldn't have expected it of them.  
  
They have a goal in this too.  
  
I thought, maybe, that they would be decent people I got all hopeful that maybe they WEREN'T wretches of humankind  
  
Johnny and Pine stood out in the hall now, Pine watching his charge patiently as the human paced tensely across the carpeted floor. Nny's teeth were clenched, his eyes flashed, and his expression was stormy. Pine did not try to calm him down; the human needed to deal with it.  
  
The sound of a door opening stopped Johnny rigidly in his tracks, back facing the door, and he stood there stiffly, hands clasped behind his back, staring straight ahead.  
  
The voice had a superior lilt to it. Superior, but naïve. That was Pine's first thought, as he perked his ears at the newcomer. Thin like the others, he was shorter and much obviously younger. His clothes were baggy, his pants grey, his shirt black swirled with blue, and he wore mortal-style sneakers interesting. His hair was long and wispy blond, his eyes were light grey, and his expression was impatient; underneath that, nervous.  
  
Yes, hello, Pine responded to the youngster. Likely it was the queen's son.  
  
Anything you need? The being's voice sounded a little more nervous now.  
  
Johnny spun around at this, and the youngster shrank back in surprise at the murderous lilt in the human's eyes. Pine knew that was the look that preceded a blade being drawn. But Nny only gazed at the faery- creature for a moment before asking, Where did you get those shoes?  
  
The youngster glanced down at his own feet; the white Nike sneakers tapped nervously against the carpet. The mortal world, he said.  
  
You've been to the mortal world? Pine inquired, lifting his head.  
  
the youngster seemed a bit more at ease now. My mother sends me there sometimes, to learn. Every hundred years or so, in mortal time. But here, I would say about a week of the same. He extended both hands.  
  
Nny's eyes flew open at this. A hundred years to a week? How long had he been in this astral world? He turned swiftly to Pine, not quite sure how to voice the questions hammering his mind.  
  
Time is relative, Nny, the unicorn told him calmly. We won't be here long in mortal time. Johnny only eyed him suspiciously for a moment, and then lowered his gaze. He could trust Pine. A long silence followed, which seemed to make the queen's son more nervous.  
  
Anything you need? he repeated.  
  
You to leave, Johnny said in response, turning away from him once more to gaze down the hall.  
  
Without a word the faery kid darted back through the door. Pine watched him go. There were few beings of the astral plane that even went near the mortal world since humans had lost touch with anything but what was in front of their faces, there was little to be accomplished paying their world a visit. Pine was one of the dwindling few that remained hopeful. There were successes, of course, but they were deeply in the minority.  
  
Johnny tore his gaze from the hall, and walked over to Pine. He crossed his arms over the unicorn's back and rested his chin on them, gazing up at the high domed ceiling. He seemed worn out to Pine... maybe even too worn out to be frustrated anymore. Contrary to what Nny thought, the unicorn did not really read his mind he heard his surface thoughts, and at the moment these were little more than a buzz.  
  
Can they actually get rid of it? he asked after a long while, his gaze never straying from the ornately carved dome roof.  
  
They would be the best for it. If they decide not to help, we will find others. There are few that would want to help a human, but we will keep looking.  
  
Johnny just sighed.


	6. A Lower Form of Life

A/N: Look, I'm updating! Haven't done that in... six months. I have been working on this story, it's just been going very slowly. But here is the next chapter... please enjoy! This also marks the first appearance of Xenofen (my friends I know have been awaiting him) =D

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Spoke gaily pushed away the last remnants of the ward that still clung to the boundaries of the castle, pushing past Aedrywn to dispel the last pockets of bad energy that had collected in the crevices of this place. It was a massive clean-up job, true, but Spoke was terribly fond of doing things. Anything, really.

Aedrywn acted as the purifier, infusing the entire place with an influx of positive energy. That, more than anything else, would help keep negativity at bay and make the doctors' job (if they even attempted to start it again) much more difficult.

But as Spoke wandered towards the perimeter of the castle, its thoughts kept wandering back to the same question: Where had Pine gone? It asked Aedrywn, and the dragon didn't know. Spoke could follow him, of course, it knew the unicorn well enough to be familiar with his energy patterns.

The fae side-stepped nervously around the ugly well of power that roiled a distance from the edge of the castle. That thing, whatever it was, made Spoke nervous, and despite the fae's ever-present curiosity, it felt no desire to investigate. It did, however, want to see where Pine had gone why he had gone there and what he had been doing hanging around on the mortal world. That thing that cold evil thing it had something to do with it. Spoke was sure of that. From the thing's taint the fae could tell that it had spent plenty of time in the physical as well. Spoke wasn't sure what the thing was, but there was something familiar about it. There was a dark cloud of its nature in that place called Earth, anyway; who knew why it was there. There were a lot of strange things in the physical world! The least of which was not humans. Spoke couldn't ignore its curiosity any longer. It requested Aedrywn to go find out where Pine was, then happily sped off towards that trail of energy.

Aedrywn watched the fae leave. Alert, cat-like eyes gazed off into the horizon, and the dragon spread his golden wings and faded back into his own astral realm. He'd find Pine; find out what was going on and what the unicorn planned to do about the thing that still lurked around the castle.

The unicorn was not a hard being to locate. Although ancient and extremely adept at melding into the natural flow of energy lines, Pine had a soft, light feel to his energy. It was the kind of energy that you unconsciously headed towards when you felt vulnerable or afraid. The contrasting presence of a disease-ridden soul, dark and frayed next to the warm glow of the unicorn, provided a better pattern to follow.

But what, Aedrywn wondered, were they doing at a fae court? He broke through the misty clouds, and gleaming turquoise water stretched out before him. He soared low, stretching out golden wings to take in the light and warmth that emanated from this place. Faeries were quaint little beings at times, mischievous tricksters at others, and then there were always the dark ones, the serious ones, and the filthy ones that no creature in their right mind would want to associate with.

Aedrywn angled his wings, catching hold of an up-stream of energy and pitching higher. The island was ahead of him, in sight now he headed towards it, a fiery stream against the light-colored sky, suddenly tagged onto and trailed by a darker shape he cast his gaze sharply to the side, barely catching a glimpse of gleaming ebony scales and frosty white ones, before the being at his side rose and dipped once more.

a triumphant voice called. The call did not leave the fire dragon much time to think in his own mind, and he tucked one wing, rolling over to answer with a scorching blast of flame in the direction of the smaller dragon.

The other countered expertly, with a solid wave of energy to deflect the flame. In another moment, the two were engaged in an aerial spar, dipping and wheeling, darting through the sky in more and more extravagant attempts to outdo each other. Their motions became erratic, and Aedrywn swerved constantly to get a good sense and look of his assailant.

Yes, he knew him. This dragon was smaller than he was, covered in black scales all over except for his underside, which was white. Xenofen. The bane of normalcy, the constantly reassigned entity who held a gnawing desire inside of him to always push outward, to never be in the same place. A creature of breakdown and change, though sometimes also of creation

I'm not so serious as that. A chiding murmur drifted through Aedrywn's thoughts. What brings you _here? You never go here. You never go __anywhere._

I'm looking for someone.

Xenofen dipped low to perch on the gatehouse of the fae castle. Not only was that rude, it was sometimes a call for immediate attack. Not that the dragon cared; he chose his resting places high so as to better observe. Today, though, there was something new to investigate in the castle a unicorn, and something wholly unpleasant even to Xenofen's experienced senses.

Johnny looked up, sharply, eyes wide and staring, as a nervous face appeared once more through the doors. Only this time, a haughty smirk was across the fae-child's features. Nny stood up, leaning away from Pine, one hand twitching instinctively towards his boot-top. The fae-child quirked an eyebrow, his expression never faltering, and Nny wanted to kill him in that instant. He gripped his thigh hard and closed his eyes tightly. A warm breath of feeling washed over him, and he saw a glow he recognized as Pine's through his closed eyelids. He relaxed a bit.

They're done talking now, the fae-child said. His tone was only superficially respectful, and the smirk never left his eyes. Nny tensed again. He wanted to run, to get far away from these things. He didn't want to deal with them. He felt the strain on his mind, he shook under it; he couldn't face them again those leering stares, superior attitudes, ruthless judgment he wasn't going back in there. No way.

_Stay out here_, Pine's voice broke through the cloud of his sudden fear. _I'll go in_.

Johnny nodded wordlessly, leaning heavily against the wall, as the unicorn stepped up towards the fae-child. The latter was still smirking, but a glance in the unicorn's suddenly fiery eyes sent him quickly back into the room.

The others here weren't powerful enough to be a worry, Spoke knew. The fae wasn't one to worry at any rate, only to avoid where it was needed. In a realm that was a bare shadow of physical Earth, Spoke traced a dark cloud. Blue eyes gazed sharply around a physical structure as the being faded in, projecting its mind along the lines connecting the astral and the physical.   
  
Spoke's thin fingers reached out to touch a drawing that lay on a desk. The drawing wasn't finished; a worn pencil lay beside it, and traces of concentration energy clung to it. Someone was working on it. The fae's gaze moved around the room again, landing this time on a small child that slept fitfully, curled against his pillow. There was a stuffed animal in his arms, but to Spoke it appeared as that same dark cloud he'd been tracing. Of an odd variant. Spoke poked it, with a light tendril of carefree positivity, but to the fae's intrigue, it didn't cringe away. Spoke tugged a little harder, found traces of negative energy lying around the house, and poked those at the cloud. It sucked them in eagerly. Negativity sponge, Spoke thought, and looked back down at the drawing on the desk. It studied the work for a moment, before tracing a rune over it, focusing the energy that was clung to it.  
  
Finishing that, Spoke skipped out astrally, having quite lost interest in the entire escapade.

There were sounds coming from that room. Voices, yes, although Nny couldn't hear anything that sounded like Pine. Leaning against the wall, his eyes had time to travel across the tapestries that lined the ornately carved walls almost up to the domed ceiling. Ridiculously luxurious surroundings, in Nny's mind why did they even have a need for these things, when this place wasn't even physical? Not physical what was the difference? Nny poked himself in the arm experimentally. It didn't really feel different but what were the limits? Ignoring the voices that had grown louder in the room to his left, he concentrated, drawing the mental knife forward again. _What's my real shape in this place? _

You know they don't like you barging in on their affairs, Xenofen, Aedrywn said calmly, as he landed lightly outside the fae castle's gates. How many times do you recall them accepting that from you?

responded Xenofen absently, his cloudy, deep blue eyes glowing icily as he crouched over the gatehouse. His head was cocked to one side, ebony horns glittering in the sunlight, the elaborate fins along his spine rippling as he arched his neck. They have a _human_ in there. One without a tie.

I know, was Aedrywn's response. The same that Pine took under his protection rotted thing, not worth the trouble

Xenofen grinned, baring long white fangs. Humans are hopeless, when's he going to realize that? _This_ one has one of those you know the ones the leech type demons.

The ones that are half formed of emotion.

I was one once.

Were you?

I worked with one though listen to this, Aedrywn. This human knows how to use his _mind_!

He listened to Pine. That's hopeful.

A lot of humans can use their minds. About .2% of the entire amount of them that's a lot of humans.

Give them time. They're a young race!

Child's playground of souls

They're not too much worse than royal court fae, Xenofen interrupted, cracking another grin, his eyes shining.

Voices wafted out from the luxurious council room, the colorful and extravagant faeries milling around, their large eyes never moving from the ethereally glowing white figure that stood firmly in front of the throne. The queen gazed without flinching into Pine's now fiery eyes, and he gazed right back, although one of his eyes remained half-hidden behind a shock of silky white forelock.

Why should we help a human? the queen said, tapping the long, slim fingers of one hand against the armrest of her throne.

_Why is a human any less deservant of your help?_ Pine replied.

We consider ourselves a superior breed. You yourself are a superior breed as well.

_I am in no way superior for the fact that I have lived longer_.

You know humans are one of the lower forms of life.

And what were we once all? another voice broke in, this one deep, lilting, and barely serious. A pair of deep blue eyes appeared next to Pine, quickly followed by the entire night-dark form of Xenofen. Grinning a cynical dragon smile. The queen stared, her knuckles going white as she clutched at the armrest.My lord, she began tightly, your presence here is a surprise your business?

Xenofen ignored the question, turning instead to the unicorn. Aedrywn's looking for you, Pine.

_I know_.

Your business, my lord? the queen repeated, looking perhaps a bit grayer in the face.

Don't call me that, the dragon said to her, his eyes glowing more fiercely. I'm just curious as to your selfishness in this matter.

A human is not worth helping, she replied, setting her jaw and lifting her chin slightly. Everyone in the room could see it took all her effort not to let her fear become apparent. Pine's head snapped around towards the door, orienting with the tip of his horn.

_I must attend to him_ he said, and then disappeared into the hall.

You see? the queen said, with a half-smile to Xenofen. They're so much _trouble_.

You may have misplaced that label, the dragon replied, another wry grin spreading across his face. He saw her gaze drop to his ebony claws, then towards the barely visible swirl of change energy that twisted through his aura. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

They learn, Xenofen said. We all did. We all have to. Why not speed things up?

Humans.. are are best left alone. She was weakening. The dragon cocked one glowing eye.

Nothing is best left alone, he said, and if anything his grin grew more malicious. And Reavers don't make good conversationalists, you know. I wouldn't wish their company on _anyone_. Not even a Xenofen turned his head to one side. human.

There was dead silence in the council room, and Xenofen smiled even wider.

The halls were strange here and how could they be so infernally _long_? Johnny knew there hadn't been this much space on the outside of course, his warped sense of reality wasn't possibly being helpful maybe these halls went underground. There was always the possibility of _that_. He reached a hand out, brushing one of the tapestries. They seemed solid enough but what kind of reassurance was that, that things were what they seemed here? He narrowed his eyes, concentrating on that movement in his mind, the movement that stretched and curled along barely visible lines of energy. They were here as they were everywhere else. Just how far _could_ someone go along them? And where did they lead? Some place better than this one, better than Earth, not full of rotten, selfish life forms? Tracing the lines with his mind, Nny felt the awareness of other planes creep into his awareness, just barely, as if he were seeing them out of the corner of his eye.

Some of them flowed easily, some were more twisted, some sucked at energy like voracious leeches some of them moved with color, others in void where was the way.. well.. home? Earth? It's not my home anymore, Nny thought morosely. And good riddance, too He was approaching something that seemed to feel like it, and a tendril of coldness leaked along some of the energy lines into his mind. It was familiar somehow; icy and wont to send shivers of dread down one's spine.

With a sudden panicked jerk of recognition Nny tried to pull his mind free. But he was far out from where he had been, and that icy tendril grew, swelled, and tightened its grip. 

Pine had been afraid of this happening. He'd sensed the human's mind traveling outwards, exploring, and he well knew the state of the thing that had had claim on him. It still lurked around the castle that they'd left desolate and strewn with energy tatters; Pine could tell that even from here. Nny making his presence known was a bad idea and it was almost inevitable that the thing had found him again. The faeries called them Reavers', but Pine had no need or desire to assign the demon a name. As it was, this was going to be a difficult fight, an exhausting one, and there was a good possibility that he wouldn't win. Hooves kicking off from a solid energy base, Pine attacked.

Nny wasn't exactly sure what happened. One moment, that familiar monster had hold of him, and the next, he was knocked down violently, feeling more than seeing a violent swirl of glowing energy, akin to what he now recognized as Pine, but honed and sharpened. This was followed by a mass of bright fire, and a swirling yin-yang, almost, of chaos, all of which surrounded and overwhelmed the icy tendrils that clung like cobwebs to Nny's mind.

Battle was not something a creature like Pine relished. It was fast-paced, desperate, and made a terrible mess of balanced energy. This thing was exceedingly powerful and though he whirled and twisted, striking at it with positivity—the thing he'd found to be most deadly to it—it was counterstriking. There were pieces of the unicorn's energy, tangible pieces, that were being painfully lanced at and dribbled away. There was nothing he could do except keep driving it, keep going until one or the other wore out and while that point was a long way in coming for such an ancient being as a unicorn, it was there on the horizon, and it would eventually come.

Although hopefully not before the defeat of the thing did. Aedrywn appeared to his right, a vengeful wave of hot fire energy. Fire energy had never been a forte of Pine's, but it was the best kind for battle. It was an energy of action, and Aedrywn employed it to full use, melding with Pine's energy to turn the force of it full into the heart of the demon-thing.

Xenofen sat regally in the center of the fae court a long moment after both Pine and Aedrywn leapt to fight the demon. The fae were aware of the proximity of it, judging by the sudden loss of color in their auras and faces. If they weren't still afraid of _him_, that was. Almost as if they considered him a kind of demon. They had no reason to, if they did. Xenofen didn't feed on pain, or negativity. There was no need for him to do anything at all that he had no immediate desire to do and what was going on right beyond the faeries' own court? A battle of _epic_ proportions, as they might say, one whose outcome was, as of yet, extremely uncertain. A unicorn and a fire dragon, locked in eternity trying to destroy a hideous blob of badness that was trying to destroy them just as passionately. And right under it all, a little scrap of tainted human that was unquestionably linked to the wretched demon-monster. Can't have that. Not to a soul. Blinking his glowing eyes at the fae queen, Xenofen disappeared from the court room as suddenly as he'd appeared there.

--

Do not worry, this is not the end... there is going to be one more chapter I think. And I'll try to get it written quicker than this one was ^.^; Oh and I have a picture of Xenofen that I did a while ago if you care to see my (bad) interpretation of him. Why can I not get my mental images in all their glory down on paper!? He doesn't look exactly like this in my mind, but tis the closest I could seem to come...

http://www.side7.com/cgi-bin/S7SDB/DisplayImg.pl?INO=174127


	7. Confined Indefinately

A/N: It's here! The LAST chapter of the story I've been blocking on for OVER SIX MONTHS!!! WHEEEE!!!!

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Pine might not have believed it, except that his heightened awareness of energy vibrations allowed him to see very clearly that all the sticky, negative traces of Nny's wall-demon were being flushed away. The thing was gone, broken down, driven away but something of that amount of power was likely to re-collect, in some plane some reality. They might not have won a unicorn embodied both strength and purity, both of these key to defeating monsters like that, but it was not enough by itself against that caliber of power. The addition of Aedrywn's own fire energy had been a help, but what had really driven the victory into being was Xenofen. There was something strange about that being, a power of chaos and change, doing what he would where he wanted or if one was lucky, where he was asked to. All the purity and all the fire in existence couldn't quite compare with Xenofen's innate ability to break stagnant things down. The wall-thing held no change in it except the accumulation of more power. If it re-formed itself elsewhere, it might be as something else entirely.

As it was, Pine took a moment to send a warm tendril of energy in Xenofen's direction as thanks, before turning to the state of his charge.

It wasn't good. Not just the influence of the demon this time; something Xenofen had done had cracked loose the tainted film, the paranoid, trapped mind and as a result it was hard to tell if there was anything left. The taint was still there but was there anything connecting to it? The form Nny had held, which was essentially what his body had looked like before he'd been cut loose from it, was faint now, and tended more to a rolling, fading swirl of energy. Pine touched the tip of his horn to the swirl, strengthening it and giving it a stronger semblance of unity. Slowly it began to take shape again, and Nny's mind fluttered open, weakly enough, but it was there.

He felt light, clearer than he remembered feeling. Like he melded in with the most subtle traces of energy that he could see coiling around Pine's hooves, around the soft glow of his horn. As if there was an absence of matter here, no coarseness whatsoever; just free-flowing energy. Pine's presence here was oddly comforting, different than the other two. They were colder, there was something wilder and more chaotic about the energy that pulsed through them, not like the unicorn's gentle strength. Johnny's mind swam in on itself, away from what he could see, although he wasn't quite sure where his mind _was_. If it wasn't in a state of being clouded and tortured, it was being in a state of not even being together. When would all of this end? They weren't even going to help him, they'd rather just let him drift away although Nny wasn't entirely sure that this wasn't what _he_ wanted to happen.

I could, Xenofen said in answer to Pine's question. It would be easy enough, but you know there wouldn't be much left of what he _was_.

_He isn't finished yet. I know he's not_.

Then don't ask _me_ to help

_You've traveled far. You've met many beings, even if only briefly. Do you know of anyone?_

Xenofen's cloudy blue gaze burned into the fading swirl that was Nny. Touching on traces of patterns there, old vibrations, remnants of the afflictions the human had been through

He knows someone, the dragon finally said, cocking an eye at Pine. The unicorn leaned forward, horn angled, and touched it to the scaled tip of Xenofen's muzzle. A memory of a set of vibrations jumped from the dragon to Pine, and in recognizing it, he pulled back abruptly. Who were they, to assume where Nny's path would take him next? Why not just let him coil out of existence, and return along his own course? The dragon's thoughts burned into Pine's mind, but the unicorn wasn't ready, yet, to abandon Johnny. They had one more stop to make, but Pine was going to make it alone with his charge.

It was impossible to judge the nature of a realm like this. Oh, was it? It seemed pretty straightforward to Nny, and even in his detached state he recognized it easily. A state of spiritual stagnation, a hideous sludge that it was nearly impossible to move in. And no one here realized it. Hell, yup, perfectly appropriate name. Because this _was_ the worst state imaginable to be in, wasn't it? At least, if growing and learning made you like _Pine_.

They weren't taking to the streets' this time around. There were pathways around the acute torpidity that infected this place, although most of them were channels for excess negativity. But the unicorn brought him through this, and there was something about him that kept it all at a tolerable level, at least where _he_ was. They were searching for an old acquaintance of Nny's, someone who had sent him back to Earth _before_

Johnny C, it was a familiar voice, holding that attitude that Nny remembered with such _fond_ dislike. He gazed sideways to the unicorn, who stood rigidly, ears perked, the horn on his forehead shimmering with an unearthly glow as it swept to orient on the tall figure before them. Dark and ethereal, there was nevertheless a sense of tangible power there, a worldliness and a dark nature that always seemed to be moving. A creature like _this_ was well suited here, although his task inevitably had to be somewhat unpleasant.

I don't want to go back to Earth, Johnny thought suddenly, experiencing a sickening sense of déjà vu. This happened to me last time, and that all that awfulness had to start up all over again—a clear tendril of energy moving past his mind made him pause, and he flinched away from the sudden feeling of the being in front of him, as well as the one from his side.

I'm not going to _hurt_ the mortal, Pine the being's voice said, in a tolerant sneer. He is of no use to me why did you bring him here?

_You know him better than I do_, the unicorn responded.

No he doesn't, Nny muttered darkly. He knows the the

I know a different side of you, the being continued. What I don't know is also what I _wish_ to why are you back here? You didn't kill yourself _this_ time.

Johnny sighed. It was a long story, and a hideous one, and he did NOT want to get back into it. Suffice to say, he'd been passed through different hands without much control over where he went.

_It was unnatural circumstances that brought him here. If you don't know _him_ better than I do you know better his path. If he needs to go back, then send him there_.

Going back would certainly be better than staying _here_ but there were better places than here. Was he just not _good_ enough for them? Like he wasn't good enough for heaven? Like he wasn't good enough for those stuck-up fae? Probably.

the being's resonant voice sounded from its dark figure. You can't be here. You can't go with Pine. Clearer now as you might be, there's a taint of something else there.

Nny mumbled, glaring upwards. Do I just have no say over where the hell I go as long as that _thing_ decides it wants to kick me around?

It's part of who you are. As unpleasant a situation as that might be, it's one you have to live with. People like you _are_ needed, as you recall.

Johnny muttered under his breath. He glanced sideways at Pine again. The unicorn's ears were back he didn't like this whole state of affairs any more than Nny did. Oh, sure you don't, you super-holy thing you're about to get rid of noxious trash receptacle and you don't like it?

The shadow looming above them looked down at Nny, his gaze burning into the human's own. He felt his consciousness fading. Shit, not _yet_! he yelped suddenly, attempting to stumble backwards. He reached a hand out towards the unicorn's flank, but didn't quite touch it before he blacked out totally.

When Nny awoke he could feel something different. He felt denser, coarser, and there was a mild tingling in one elbow and one leg. He was lying on some hard surface, but other than that, everything around him felt empty, dead like all his awareness of those weird lines and colorful planes had just disappeared. He was in a cell again.

Nny opened his eyes, and old, familiar sights swam into his vision. Cracked wall plaster. Scuffed floors. A smashed mirror and a broken-down old clothes dresser. Discolored stains in various places along the floor. Slowly, he sat up, relieving the pressure from the floor on his limbs. As anyone who had just awoken did, and especially Nny, he pinched himself hard in the ribs and was rewarded by a spark of pain. This place hadn't changed at all from what he could see. It was the same desolate, blood-soaked hovel that was somehow more comforting than the world that surrounded it. At least, there was no feel of that thing in his mind. At least, he wasn't being dragged along over a thousand weird planes where no one welcomed him. At least he'd been abandoned for _hopefully_ the last time. If he stayed in here, he'd be alone, he'd be safe, he wouldn't have to deal with a world that he was sure he could _bear_ anymore a slight movement caught his eye, and he looked downwards.

A cockroach crawled across the floorboards, pausing every couple of moments to wave its antennae.

Hello, Mr. Samsa, Nny said dryly, half surprised to hear his voice still working. Perhaps an insect lived a simple life, but it was only driven by food. Maybe if insects didn't need to eat, like unicorns did unicorns need to eat? Nny shoved the thought from his mind. Best to forget about _that_ kind of ideal the coldness Nny had always sought didn't really have room for the kind of compassion Pine showed. Nny thought he might finally understand just why the unicorn was so unpopular for that particular trait. In the higher pursuits' one didn't have time for helping others. Or did they?

Almost out of habit, Nny reached over to crush the cockroach against the floor. But something stopped him. His thin fingers hovered over the oblivious insect, and he jerked back suddenly at a presence in his mind a very familiar glow of strength. Followed by this was a sudden image of Nailbunny in his mind, and seeing his old pal, Nny lost all desire to crush the instinct. He had what it took he could get through this, he could keep alone, he could keep those disgusting influences out of his way, as well as that wall-demon. And he could do fine without Pine's help. Even if he couldn't, did it matter? His being sent back here, for the second time, _confined_ almost, was mute testimony to the fact that he was irrevocably stuck where he was, tainted and cursed probably for the rest of eternity.

Go _away_, Pine, he muttered. Find someone who can actually get.. fixed. You know, I knew this great kid once, his name was Squee Nny trailed off, and the familiar glow of the unicorn's presence was gone. 

In a house not quite so replete with negativity, Pine obeyed Johnny's request. It was, in fact, right next door, and while tatters of fear hung around this particular room, there was, otherwise, nothing bad at all. Well, there was one thing one very specific thing. A worn and obviously well-loved teddy bear, smiling like a demon into the darkness of the room as the child in the bed unwittingly clutched it in his sleep. Pine gazed at it, and then, with one swift, decisive gesture, bent and touched his horn to the toy.

Darkness roiled around the tip of his horn but could not touch it, and with a spear of healing energy Pine dissipated the thing, sweeping it out and into the ground. Almost immediately, traces of the pain and disarray which this house existed in began to creep into the room, only subtly, but enough to make the child in the bed sit bolt upright, eyes wide, clutching the teddy in a panic. 

There was something wrong with Shmee something about the bear, the part that had talked to him, the part that kept the badness out of his life, it was gone. His teddy was nothing more than a fuzzy shell, a cold semblance of the comfort that Shmee's presence had once given. Todd felt his eyes well up with tears of panic.

He saw a glow from the corner of his eye, and blinked up at it. His eyes widened even more, if that were even possible. A ghost, Todd squeaked, trying to huddle down into the blankets. He felt exceedingly unsafe without the bear there, and he shut his eyes tightly, desperately willing the bad things to go away. Something cool touched the back of his hand, and a soft flow of warmth spread throughout him. This wasn't scary at least, it didn't _feel_ scary. Maybe demons could feel not-scary in order to trick you. Todd opened his eyes again, shivering, and, unbidden, glanced over at the wall.

A finished drawing was taped there, a crude childish sketch like the ones that surrounded it, but there was something suddenly familiar about it. It was a picture of the scary neighbor man, astride a white horse-looking creature with a single long horn on its forehead. Todd looked back at the glow, and saw the same creature, the tip of its (very sharp, Todd noted) horn bent to touch the edge of the bed. What was this thing? Was it safe? He looked into the creature's eyes and knew with a sudden warm certainty that yes, it was.

Nny stared blankly at the table. He kept a lot of various odds and ends on here, but as numbly as he shuffled through the pile, he didn't find what he was looking for. Where WAS it!? He KEPT this stuff in here, he KNEW he did wait. It's not here, what am I thinking, Nny thought with a sigh. Kneeling down, he pulled a box from underneath the table and started digging through that. It took him a few minutes, but he unearthed several tubes of paint, as well as some of his old paintbrushes. He'd been tending to use just markers lately what was the point of sitting down at that idiotic desk and using paints—albeit old, cheap ones—to draw stick figure comics. He brought them over now, and stared at the blank paper that was sitting on the desk, pinned up against its slant. It shone, almost, in the dim lamp that was hunched over it, and Nny set the paints down next to his chair.

He sat down cautiously as he held a paintbrush up to the paper, images of Happy Noodle Boy dancing through his head. By that stinking place called hell I always seem to end up at Nny thought darkly. If I can't he cleared his mind, and set the brush to the paper. And stared. His hand kept moving, and still he stared. The brush moved expertly across the paper, dipped I the paint, flowed, blended, shaded _expressed_ in contrast and movement and line and shape, in ways he couldn't even remember it having done before.

I'm free, Nny thought numbly, as the brush worked over the paper. I'm free. I'm finally free.

--

It's finally over... o.o Wow. That took me way too long, didn't it? Hey, please review and tell me what you think.. ^.^


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